Oxygen-16.1: error while expanding the 'ask' editor variable

[Ron Van den Branden]

Hi,

After updating to 16.1, I get errors for project tasks that pass parameters from user input, with the ${ask} editor variable.

Following test example:

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${ask('message', combobox, ('1':'value 1'; '2':'value 2'; '3':'value 3'))}

...used to work in Oxygen-16.0, and I don't see anything wrong with it. Yet, after updating to 16.1, I get the error:

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An error occurred while expanding the 'ask' editor variable. Please check the syntax of the editor variable.

Has anything changed w.r.t. the 'ask' editor variable?

Best,

Ron

[Radu]

Hi Ron,

I tested your small example and it seems to work for me using Oxygen 16.1.
Could you double check on your side?

One problem we are working to rectify in the next Oxygen 16.1 minor bug fix release for the expansion of the ask editor variable is that we accidentally constrained all the parsed parameters to be on a single line so if you had line breaks between parameters this could be the cause.

Regards,
Radu

[Ron Van den Branden]

Hi Radu,

Thanks for your thoughts. I've isolated this parameter in an otherwise empty task and it works indeed. The error I reported occurred in a more complete task definition that passed more parameters. Investigating this further I think I've found two interesting observations:

1. the problem seems to lie with the ${system()} editor variable, instead of ${ask()}
2. yet, (even when no ${ask()} variable is involved, the error message reports a problem with the ${ask()} variable

The real trigger appeared to be the following editor variable:

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${system(user.name)}

While this used to work in 16.0, Oxygen-16.1 reports following error:

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An error occurred while expanding the 'ask' editor variable. Please check the syntax of the editor variable.

...this happens in a test task passing only this parameter (so without any ${ask()} editor variables).

Has anything changed to ${system()} in 16.1?

Best,

Ron

[Radu]

Hi Ron,

Sorry, I still cannot reproduce this problem.
Are you sure you are adding the "system" editor variable to the same new file template from which you are creating the new files? Because "system" works for me and even if it didn't it would not report a message about the "ask" editor variable. So there is some place in your content where you are still using the ask editor variable.

Regards,
Radu

[Ron Van den Branden]

Hi Radu,

I see, apparently the problem is limited to the ANT task. This should reproduce the problem: a new project, created from scratch which contains only one ANT task:

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<project version="16.1">

    <meta>

        <filters directoryPatterns="" filePatterns="" positiveFilePatterns="" showHiddenFiles="false"/>

        <options>

            <serialized version="16.1" xml:space="preserve">

                <serializableOrderedMap>

                    <entry>

                        <String>scenarios</String>

                        <scenario-array>

                            <antScenario>

                                <field name="additionalAntArgs">

                                    <String></String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="buildTarget">

                                    <String></String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="buildFilePath">

                                    <String>${cfne}</String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="ditaParams">

                                    <list>

                                        <antParameter>

                                            <field name="name">

                                                <String>test</String>

                                            </field>

                                            <field name="description">

                                                <String></String>

                                            </field>

                                            <field name="value">

                                                <String>${system(user.name)}</String>

                                            </field>

                                            <field name="defaultValue">

                                                <null/>

                                            </field>

                                            <field name="type">

                                                <Integer>5</Integer>

                                            </field>

                                            <field name="isPredefined">

                                                <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                            </field>

                                            <field name="possibleValues">

                                                <null/>

                                            </field>

                                        </antParameter>

                                    </list>

                                </field>

                                <field name="jvmArgs">

                                    <String>-Xmx256m</String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="useCustomJavaHome">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="customJavaHomeDir">

                                    <String></String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="useCustomANTHome">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="customANTHomeDir">

                                    <String></String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="workingDir">

                                    <String>${cfd}</String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="showConsoleAlways">

                                    <Boolean>true</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="advancedOptionsMap">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="name">

                                    <String>test ANT task</String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="baseURL">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="footerURL">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="fOPMethod">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="fOProcessorName">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="headerURL">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="inputXSLURL">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="inputXMLURL">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="defaultScenario">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="isFOPPerforming">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="type">

                                    <String>ANT</String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="saveAs">

                                    <Boolean>true</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="openInBrowser">

                                    <Boolean>true</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="outputFile">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="outputResource">

                                    <null/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="openOtherLocationInBrowser">

                                    <Boolean>true</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="locationToOpenInBrowserURL">

                                    <String></String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="openInEditor">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="showInHTMLPane">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="showInXMLPane">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="showInSVGPane">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="showInResultSetPane">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="useXSLTInput">

                                    <Boolean>false</Boolean>

                                </field>

                                <field name="xsltParams">

                                    <list/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="cascadingStylesheets">

                                    <String-array/>

                                </field>

                                <field name="xslTransformer">

                                    <String>ANT</String>

                                </field>

                                <field name="extensionURLs">

                                    <String-array/>

                                </field>

                            </antScenario>

                        </scenario-array>

                    </entry>

                </serializableOrderedMap>

            </serialized>

        </options>

    </meta>

    <projectTree name="oxygen_test.xpr"/>

</project>

Executing the "test ANT task" triggers the error in 16.1 (no problem in 16.0). While there's no trace of an ${ask()} variable, this is the error message:

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An error occurred while expanding the 'ask' editor variable. Please check the syntax of the editor variable.

I'm testing on Windows 7, 64 bit.

Best,

Ron

[Radu]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the details, I reproduced the issue on our side, added a bug for it and the bug will be fixed in the next Oxygen 16.1 minor bug fix release.
Usually such bug fix releases are announced in this RSS feed:

http://www.oxygenxml.com/rssBuildID.xml

Regards,
Radu

[ionela]

Hi,

Just to updated the thread, this problem has been resolved in the latest maintenance build of Oxygen 16.1, 2014102117 (released on October 23rd):

Editor variables / ANT/DITA-OT transformations: If editor variables, other than ${ask}, were used as parameters of an ANT or DITA-OT transformation scenario, a misleading error mentioning the ${ask} editor variable was reported.

You can download the new installation kits from our web site:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/download.html

Here you can find the complete list of bug-fixes:
http://www.oxygenxml.com/build_history.html#2014102117

Let us know if you encounter further problems with this new build.

Regards,
Ionela

[Ron Van den Branden]

Great, I can confirm it works now. Thanks!

Ron